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First Look at CES 2013

Five early gadget reveals from this year's Consumer Electronics Show.

Jan 6, 2013

Five early gadget reveals from this year's Consumer Electronics Show.

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First Look at CES 2013

The Consumer Electronics Show has unofficially pre-opened to the non-public with CES Unveiled, a press-preview two days before the show. We've fought our way through rabid reporters and photographers to get the scoop on a few of the most interesting (and baffling) gadgets at the event.

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Lenovo Horizon

At 27 inches, this tablet computer is really more of a table computer—similar to the Microsoft Surface from several years ago, but squarely aimed at consumers. The Horizon can function as a standard Windows 8 computer, but can also be laid flat on a tabletop (or turned into a tabletop with an accessory stand) and used by multiple people from multiple angles. To enable this sort of multi-user experience, Lenovo has created a separate UI called Aura, which supports up to 10 touch inputs and let's users do things like share photos or videos in personalized windows pushed across the table. It also makes for a pretty slick gaming device, with included accessories such as stick-on joysticks, air-hockey paddles, and a die with integrated positioning sensors that wirelessly tells the computer which way it landed. Lenovo reps say it should hit the market this summer for around $1600.

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Vuzix Smart Glasses

The Vuzix Smart Glasses combine one old-fashioned technology (glasses) and one new one (tiny screens), giving us (i.e. the besneakered crowds at CES Unveiled) a device that inches us closer to the cyborg future. The M100 high-tech smartphone display runs on Ice Cream Sandwich and beams info from the cloud, displaying it on an eyepiece and streaming audio to a single headphone. The result is essentially a juiced-up Bluetooth headset. And like a Bluetooth headset, favorite of public-monologue holders, the M100 makes for a confused reality, one in which you're unsure what to look at—the Disney video playing on the tiny screen floating in front of your face, or the actual people standing in front of you. If you choose the former, you can play games, watch TV, record video, and read and answer texts and emails. Vuzix plans to launch this glasses this summer and says they'll cost less than $500.

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Ion Party Rocker

It looks sort of like a guitar amp—and can function as one in a pinch—but the Ion Party Rocker's prime mission is to be an instant disco party. It's got a light-show bubble on top that projects colored lights that strobe to the beat. Anyone can pair to the speaker over a Bluetooth connection and stream music from a computer, phone, or tablet. It's not competing in the same space as mini battery-powered portable Bluetooth speakers such as the Jawbone Jambox or Bose SoundLink—the Party Rocker's more of a luggable, plug-in device. But at 50 watts, the $150 device is powerful enough to shake the walls of your next shindig.

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HzO WaterBlock

On the first of the two pre-CES nights of CES events, we saw the future of electronics waterproofing. HzO makes a nanomaterial that waterproofs electronics from the inside, creating an invisible barrier between the phone's components and the outside. It's miles away from the clunky, hyper-rubberized, hyper-masculinzed cases that we've grown used to. To get the waterproofing to happen within rather than without, HzO coats electronics' guts with WaterBlock, a nanomaterial that creates a barrier between the outside environment and the phone's components. Unlike more common hydrophobic coatings, which can hold up against a splash by repelling water molecules, WaterBlock relies on a physical shield to keep water out, even if the phone is totally submerged.

The main downside is availability: Because HzO works with electronics manufacturers, not consumers, to actually get a phone with WaterBlock inside it, you'll have to wait for Apple and co. to jump on the nanoprotection bandwagon.

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Flower Power

There will be caveats, but first, the excitement: Parrot, makers of an increasingly strange spectrum of products—including Phone-controlled drones and high-end Bluetooth headphones—unveiled a Bluetooth sensor for plants at CES Unveiled; with the unfortunate name of Flower Power. For anyone unable to foster plant life, this could be great news. Drive the slingshot-looking device into the soil of a potted plant, and it will gauge light, humidity and salinity levels. Better yet, it’ll transmit this data to an iPhone or iPad via Bluetooth Smart (low-power Bluetooth). You can use this info immediately, such as to shift the plant’s position for better sun exposure, or the app can send alerts, asking for more water, and supplying charts that indicate when you tend to water it, and when you actually should. The company is being somewhat vague on pricing ("how much do you think it should be?") and availability (sometime this year), but the accompanying app is so useful and beautiful, we’ll wait.

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